Tim Bale’s Blog- Electoral reform for the UK? Don’t bet on it, Financial Times, 3 June 2026.
- ‘Britain’s “ungovernable” decade’, Anadolu Ajansı, 21 May 2026.
- ‘Dumping Starmer won’t reverse Labour’s fortunes [unless….]’, New Statesman, 12 May 2026
- ‘Will Nigel Farage overtake the prime minister as the U-turn leader?’, Independent, 2 April 2026
- ‘Polarised and Powerful: Party Members in British Politics’, Political Insight, 18 March 2026.
- ‘Political treachery is a dangerous art. Streeting must perfect it if he wants to wear the crown’, Daily Telegraph, 16 February 2026.
- ‘The two bloc polarisation of Britain’s voters and Party members’, LSE British Politics Blog, 2 February 2026.
- ‘Ahead of seismic local elections, what we know about Reform’s ability to put boots on the ground for the campaign’, The Conversation, 20 January 2026
- ‘Churchill’s defection didn’t kill the Tories. Robert Jenrick’s certainly won’t’, Daily Telegraph, 19 January 2026.
- ‘The ten most surprising facts from the 2024 election revealed’, The Conversation, 15 December 2025.
Author Archives: tpbale
‘Fighting force? What Lib Dem members and supporters did for the party in #GE2015’ (with Monica Poletti and Paul Webb), Liberal Democrat Newswire, 2 April 2017
The Lib Dems have quite a reputation as election campaigners, renowned and resented in equal measure for their Focus leaflets, their ‘Can’t win here’ bar-charts and their ubiquitous dayglo diamonds. Indeed one of the reasons why, at least before the … Continue reading
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Tagged Elections, Lib Dems, Liberal Democrats, party members
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‘The Conservatives who threatened to vote UKIP. All mouth and no trousers.’, ConservativeHome, 19 March 2017
So much has happened in politics since the summer that it takes a bit of effort to remember a time when Theresa May wasn’t the Conservative leader and Brexit wasn’t all we ever talked about. But cast your mind back, … Continue reading
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Tagged Conservative Party, Conservative Party members, Elections, party members, UKIP
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‘Out of touch and under threat’, Sunday People, 26 February, 2017.
LABOUR was founded to represent the interests of working people. But it was a lot simpler when those people had a lot in common with each other and many MPs came from ordinary backgrounds. As the service sector overtook manufacturing, … Continue reading
‘Should Ukip just dissolve itself?’, CityAM, 1 March, 2017.
The phrase “existential threat” is bandied around a lot these days, but in Ukip’s case it is an accurate description of the danger it faces. With a Conservative Prime Minister not only determined to ensure that the UK leaves the … Continue reading
‘Truth to tell: populism and the immigration debate’, LSE Politics and Policy, 1 March 2017.
We are living in a world where it’s no longer ‘the economy, stupid’. That’s not to say real wages, the cost of living, and tax-and-spend don’t matter to people anymore. Clearly, they still do. But they no longer trump nearly … Continue reading
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Tagged Brexit, Conservative Party, EU, GAL-TAN, immigration, Labour Party, Migration, Populism
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‘Can Labour survive Brexit?’, CityAm, 6 February 2017.
From the 1960s to the 1980s Labour was forever u-turning on whether the UK should join or leave Europe. But it seemed finally to have embraced Britain’s EU membership from the 1990s onwards. That was certainly the impression that the … Continue reading
‘Is the Labour Party in terminal decline?’, CityAM, 4 January 2017
Businesses and political parties both operate in markets where competition can be cut-throat, where mistakes can be costly, where leadership and branding matter, and where, ultimately, the customer is king. Yet there’s one big difference: businesses – even firms so … Continue reading
‘Are elections won by members or money?’, ConservativeHome, 22 December 2016
We live in a golden age of political participation. Hard to believe it, I know. But when it comes to people joining political parties, it’s true – or at least half true. On the one hand, huge numbers of people … Continue reading
‘What the Lib Dems can learn from failure’, Liberal Democrat Newswire #88, 5 December 2016
We all fear failure, but we don’t want to think about it too much. It’s less uplifting and less inspiring than success, and worrying about it can stop us even trying to do stuff. That’s a pity. Because, paradoxically, thinking … Continue reading
‘Explaining the pro-Corbyn surge in Labour’s membership’ (with Monica Poletti and Paul Webb), LSE British Politics and Policy Blog, 16 November 2016
As part of our ESRC-funded Party Members Project (PMP), we fielded a first survey with existing Labour members in May 2015 and a second one with post-election members in May 2016. We now know that at the most recent leadership … Continue reading
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Tagged Jeremy Corbyn, Labour members, Labour Party, Members, membership, Momentum, party members
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Tim Bale's Blog 